January 17th, 2013

Inspired by House GOP told to stop talking about rape (Rosalind Helderman and Ed O’Keefe, WashingtonPost.com 1/17/13). The GOP may be attempting to change it’s word choice, but it has not changed its policies.

She can, but only if bearing that child is not forced on her, as its conception was.

Love can never be forced. Love can only exist when it comes of one’s own free will.

Trust the woman. Let her choose.

Because only with choice can there be love.

***

Here’s the movie that inspired this particular piece, Rob Roy (in particular, the “I could not kill it” scene, but I couldn’t find a video of that). In discussing this broader issue, I use the rape exception as my example, but the same principle applies to all abortions: even when the sex act was willing, the pregnancy may not have been. Those women too deserve a choice (they also deserve, and it’s in society’s interest to give them, easy access to birth control, so that the more difficult choice is avoided). If women aren’t allowed that most important of choices, it’s much harder to love the child that results from that act of reproductive coercion.